My thoughts on Anna and Elsa moving to Fairytale Hall in the Magic Kingdom

Disney has confirmed the news that Anna and Elsa are moving to the Magic Kingdom’s Fairytale Hall on April 20, 2014. I mentioned that this would be happening a couple days ago and it created a lot of buzz. Disney is only guaranteeing them until “EARLY EVENING,” they will then be replaced by “visiting princesses.” That’s an important term, so don’t breeze over it without taking note.

When I began this site, I committed myself to sharing my unabashed opinions. I’m not a media person and don’t have media credentials and really don’t want them. I don’t want my opinions being influenced by someone feeding me some tarts and giving me access to an attraction that average guests don’t have. I have nothing against those who do, just not my style. I want to experience the park just like you do and tell you the best way to maneuver the parks. So here’s my opinion on the move that will be happening.

Pluses +

It will offer Fastpass+. It’s a positive thing that some guests will be able to meet the Frozen girls with a much shorter wait. People are waiting 5 hours or more to meet them in a really tiny room in Epcot. They have waited in the sun, in the rain and in the cold. The girls are really important to many Walt Disney World guests.

It will benefit those who are willing to run to the rope drop, especially those using 8:00am EMH. Currently there are people who are booking the Akershus character breakfast between 8:00 and 9:00 for any size group they can find on any day of their trip and then just skipping the meal or leaving it really quickly. Those who are skipping the meal are just absorbing the $10 per person fee and seeing it as a service charge for a 1-2 hour wait. People are already reporting on my Facebook page that they are canceling Akershus reservations from the 20th onward. At the Magic Kingdom, there are actual ropes that keep guests out of each land after the Magic Kingdom Welcome show before the Cast is ready to open the attractions. Well, the exception to that rule would be during 8:00am Extra Magic Hour. I would bet a lot of people will book those early magic hour breakfasts at Crystal Palace and skip them. I would expect a lot of people to leave their Castle or Crystal Palace breakfast a little early to saunter over to one of the ropes to be prepared for the opening. I would expect the already busy area in the back of the castle will be log jammed with people scurrying to meet Anna and Elsa. Disney’s response should be to ask for pre-pay at the Crystal Palace as they do for Cinderella Castle. I’d bet our Fetch Dining Locator will get a lot of traffic for breakfast searches.

Fairytale Hall has increased capacity that the Princesse Plass can’t offer. I don’t give away the magic, but the lines do move faster here than they ever would at Epcot. The wait times should be a little better for regular guests, but more people plan character meets at the Magic Kingdom too.

Minuses –

Fastpass+. How can Fastpass+ be a minus? A couple of ways. One, those who book a FP+ beyond the 9:00-10:00 time frame will likely meet one or two hours just using the FP+. When the Princes appeared for a single day on Valentine’s until early afternoon the line for FP+ return was 1.5 to 2 hours in the afternoon and it was pretty chaotic when they cut off the line. What time will they stop offering FP+ each day? Noon? 2:00 PM: 4:00 PM? I would expect this FP+ to go faster than any Toy Story Mania FP+ has ever gone. The Magic 8 Ball told me some unscrupulous people could begin a cottage industry offering people a FP+ slot using their wristbands. I will also state that if you don’t get to pre-reserve a FP+ because the hotel guests beat you to it, just check the app or kiosk as soon as the park opens. A large number of FP+ are opened up each day as the park opens.

Cutting off the line mid-day. What a DUMB idea! Sorry, but I just call it like it is. This is the longest regular wait time in Walt Disney World history because it’s really popular. Rapunzel with Flynn Rider was popular, but never reached this level. People weren’t booking breakfast and skipping to meet them either. By stopping the line (at what point?) they are hindering hundreds of fans from meeting the girls just in order to save a few hundred dollars per day or to offer them Princesses that meet in Epcot or they could easily spread out in the park somewhere for a 15-20 minute wait. You would think they learned something from all these poorly executed events like Villains Night, 24 hour days and Valentine’s Day at Fairytale Hall. It puts a LOT of pressure on front line Cast Members to tell people that the line for Anna and Elsa was cut off at 2 or 3 pm. Then the guests flip out on them and run to guest services to complain. Disney World – just let the girls meet all day and you’ll save yourself a lot of pain.

Removing them entirely from Epcot. Okay, I get that we aren’t supposed to mention that Mickey has the magic to meet in 4 parks in the same day. But Elsa has magic powers too, so she could swing some special ice path that would allow them to slide back and forth quickly. If they kept the Epcot location AND offered the Magic Kingdom location, it would keep the lines at each much more manageable. Some people are upset because the movie is inspired by Norwegian culture, but the girls won’t be in Epcot’s Norway any more. I see that as a non-issue to the majority of guests. Most guests want to meet them with as short of a line as possible. They could easily add them to Akershus dining and make that a must have reservation again and they could even charge a $1 or $2 more for the benefit.

What will you do to be sure your family meets Anna and Elsa after they move to the Magic Kingdom? Do you agree that the Frozen ladies should be available from open to close just like Cinderella and Rapunzel?

110 thoughts on “My thoughts on Anna and Elsa moving to Fairytale Hall in the Magic Kingdom”

We did the 24hr party last night and at 2 am the queue still said 5 hrs . My 2 daughters 8/6 have been really disappointed by this. Smacks of people not really acting about little children queuing for that amount if time. Why they cants be in 2 parks makes no sense. And don’t he me started on the lack of Elsa merchandise!!!

They aren’t in two parks because it costs a lot more money and they would have to cut more characters to provide them. They moved them to Fairytale Hall to increase capacity and offer FP+. Disney doesn’t have any control over how many people are willing to wait to meet a character, they just provide the opportunity to do so. If a parent wishes to wait the 5 hours, then it’s a matter of their choice I would suppose. I waited a long time to meet Oogie Boogie and Jack Skellington. I would have waited a long time last night to meet Pain and Panic, but I was doing an Ultimate Tour. Disney can’t guarantee you won’t wait, but they can just remove them from the parks and eliminate the opportunity or begin to provide only one Frozen girl.

Hi. I am a FL Resident who took my 4 and 2 year old daughters to Disney for the first time in Feb. We did Magic Kingdom both days and dined at Cinderella’s Royal table for her 4th Birthday. It was all wonderful, and now we are doing a mommy and me day for our third resident day on May 2. I found out last Monday about Anna and Elsa, and my daughter will be so excited if she gets to meet them. I tried to book a FP+, but we were not at the 30 days yet. I called two times and was finally able to find 1 FP+ for my daughter on Saturday, May 3 around 1pm. I booked this, but really want to take her on Friday, May 2. I was thinking about just chancing it and going Friday, getting there at rope drop, and then heading straight to Anna and Else for standby. Would you recommend keeping the FP+ and going on Saturday, or hoping for the best on Friday? Although the girl on the phone who got me the one pass said that FP+ was all booked up for all of May, I do continue checking daily.

I would just arrive 45 minutes early. Stand right on a rope and hustle to the meet. There’s another rope in Fantasyland that will be holding back the guests. You may end up waiting longer using FP. But don’t surrender it until you’ve met them. Also, you’ll need a FP for you and her to meet together.

Hello! I am just wondering how I can get updates/tips regarding how this transition for the characters goes! We are going to WDW on April 27-May 3 and was only made aware of it b/c I have a good friend that knows a lot about the parks. Had I not spoken to her, we would’ve been looking in Epcot or not had the opportunity to FP+ this meet & greet. Needless to say, I have a VERY EXCITED 3 year old little girl who is DYING to meet these two! If we do anything down there, that is a must! I also don’t understand why they don’t just have them at different parks – it would make it so much easier for EVERYONE!! After I heard about this change, I was very quick to look online and book it and for the week that we are going, the pickings were slim. We had to add a second day @ Magic Kingdom – which wasn’t an issue since we would’ve done that anyway but there were only a couple times to choose from. We are booked for 9:45 am to 10:45 am. I tried to get as early as possible so that we could still work around naptime and what-not (we have a 3 year old and 1 year old). What are the chances that we will still have a long line? What are the chances that we could change it when it gets closer so that we go in earlier? I appreciate any advice you can give – we went to WDW for our honeymoon but I know it will be a WHOLE different experience with kids and I am SO excited but trying to be as prepared as possible!

Kenny, I could use your help. We will be there April 2nd and both my girls have costumes they want to dress up in (Anna and Elsa) and there are no reservations left at Akershus. Should I go for rope drop and hope for the best? I can’t envision them lasting five hours without me while I wait in line… I need advice!

Thanks, Kenny! We’ll take that advice! We’re staying in the park without a rental car. Will hopping on the first bus from Port Orleans get us there early enough to be somewhat at the front of the turnstiles? Thanks again for your help. Who knew Anna and Elsa would capture my little girls’ hearts so entirely!!

Wow, that is really crappy, to waste a fastpass+ on an option and STILL have to wait up to two hours! I’m so glad I know, as this would have been a huge frustration. Thanks for all the awesome info, even if it bums me out 😉

Can you please explain one of your ‘minuses’. I didn’t quite understand “those who book a FP+ beyond the 9:00-10:00 time frame will likely meet one or two hours just using the FP+”. Does that mean that if I book a fastpass for any time after 10 I will most likely see a 1-2 hour wait still? I’m sorry if that is exactly what you meant, but I am hoping that I just am not understanding right…

We were fortunate enough to meet Anna and Elsa this past Friday 03/18/14. We had reservations at Akershus at 8:05. We arrived to Epcot at 7:25 and were about the 5th party in line. When they let us in around 7:50 we walked as fast as we could and ended up being about the 4th group allowed in the restaurant. My mom finished her breakfast and headed over to the line about 8:40. We were still waiting to see Cinderella. I had already paid early in the breakfast and so as soon as we took the Cinderella photo and got her autograph my daughter and I headed over to join my mom in line. We were 3rd to see Anna and Elsa that day. When we were done (probably around 9:15) we walked through World Showcase and the line was already to the Margarita stand in Mexico. A friend who was also at the breakfast got in line shortly after us, but before rope drop and was quoted a one hour wait. I talked with a cast member in Epcot the next day and he told me that the wait time actually made it to 7 hours that day. CRAZY!!! It worked out well for us because I did my research as was willng to get up SUPER early and fork out a chunk of money on breakfast. Not everyone can do that and it is not fair to all of the little girls that want to see Anna and Elsa and can’t because of the way that the meet and greet is set up. Disney SHOULD do better. The girls should meet at Epcot and at Magic Kingdom. I can understand ending the Epcot meet and greet in the late afternoon/early evening as the other Epcot princesses do, but when meeting at Magic Kindgom they should be there all day like the other princesses in Fairytale Hall.

I chatted with a disney CM yesterday who assured me numerous times that Anna and Elsa are already at princess fairytale hall –
Now. In march. We are going at the beginning of April. Can anyone confirm that this is true? It seems unlikely based on everything I am reading but she told me servers times they are there NOW.

Well considering you can meet Snow White, Belle, Alice and Jasmine in both Epcot and MK, there’s no good reason they can’t meet in both parks. It’s not like WDW has a lack of cast members they can slap a costume on

If i have a fast pass reservation for 9:30am for Anna and Elsa how long of a wait do you think it will be? Maybe I should choose the latest FP time available for a lesser wait? This is so stressful! LOL

Kenny, earlier you talk about them cutting off the line in the afternoon. I have a FP scheduled from 340-440 on April 26th. Do you think they will cut off the line before all the FP windows are filled? In other words, do I have to be worried that if I show up at 340 that they will turn us away even though we have FPs?
Thanks!

Do you know if Cinderella and Rapunzel will now be greeting together as one FP?? I thought I read Rapunzel was going to join Cinderella so I cancelled my Rapunzel FP for A&E but I’m worried that was a mistake. (I got all frazzled) We are doing CRT so I would really like to FP Rapunzel.

Pretty new to FP+ and my window opens in 5 days. We will be onsite for 7 days so I certainly have plenty of time frames to choose from. With your (or others’) experience with FP+ and a top ticket attraction (like Toy Story Midway Mania) what are the chances of the FP+ running out for our entire stay??
Also, can I book FP+ right at 12 midnight EST?
I KNOW that I am becoming one of those “crazy” moms, but even I want to meet the girls!!
Thanks for the advice/tips!

Amy, chances are zero. If they run out any time before the day of your visit, a whole new set will open the day of. However, the system will only show them if you cancel your existing FP+ on the day of. They list a big chunk for day guests when the park opens. Can’t guarantee you of the exact reset time, sorry.

I was worried for nothing!! 10 pm our time (midnight Orlando time) I logged on and was able to select FP+ for the entire trip and A & E were available every day at many different times. Thank you so much for all your help and feedback!! And I would love to get your App but it is not on iTunes Canada – any chance of that coming in the future?

I am shocked that Disney is not fast tracking a character dining experience around them. It seems like a no brainer to instantly improve a restaurant that has less than ideal booking or reputation (I’m looking at you Tony’s Town Square) or is only used seasonally, put a huge price premium on it to see the sisters and just rake in the money.

I don’t see why Disney would have an issue with them appearing in 2 parks… The MM gang isn’t the only one.. Belle & Ariel are at MK, and at the Askerhus breakfast, and CRT in MK. Moving A&E to Askerhus, and fairy tale hall makes a lot of sense. Our Feb trip we planned an Askerhus reservation at 8am, and then got to be 3rd in line for A&E unfortunately for us it was the ONLY day that week they were meeting at 11am so we still waited 2 hours.

No, we enjoyed our breakfast… didn’t even rush through it. We all went & rode Soarin while my brother waited in line… he got the Dad/Uncle of the year award 🙂 Yes, seems given their popularity Disney could make them available in more than one park. Any chance they’ll be moving to Askerhus around April as well, and it hasn’t been announced?

I waited about 1 hour and 45 minutes for A&E on Feb. 22nd. Based on intel from your fabulous site and cast members, we opted to try and get in line in the evening and did not tell my 4 year old daughter the plan. I walked up to the line at 7:04 PM and was told I would be the last group to see the princesses. We met them at 8:45.

The cast members told me they were cutting the line to give guests a two-hour window to wrap up by 9:00. They were pretty spot-on with their estimation.

While I was there several people tried to join the line with crazy excuses. One woman claimed she had been in line since 7:30 in the morning and had just left to use the restroom. One man said he got stuck in traffic on the interstate driving in from Ft. Lauderdale and he really needed to get into line that night because they were leaving to go home in the morning. These folks were also pretty rude to the cast members. I really felt for the Disney employees.

Adding A&E to a dining option would be great. The lines to meet Cinderella at Fairytale Hall were always longer than Rapunzel’s line when we were there- because most guests, like us, meet Cinderella at the Royal Table.

I called and asked this question today. The CM assured me that they would not cancel the FP that I would either rec. an email with the opportunity to switch it out or I would rec. An email telling me they modified my FP to the new princesses at fairytale hall. She was not sure what was going to be done yet but she said several times it would not be cancelled.

I’ll probably sound condescending on this one, but don’t trust a CM on the phone. They don’t know what they are talking about. I just had FP+ canceled on me for the parade’s opening day so they could open more space for the media. Save that email 🙂

Disney has a very strange way of dealing with things. Villains night was horrible yet mandatory for anyone who loves bad guys. They had no plan and were shocked by the turnout. Jack Skellington at downtown disney 2 years ago suprised them with the turnout. Now Anna and Elsa have them stumped. I have used you guide as a basis for my trip making alterations as needed and while the fastpass+ is an awesome idea. I dont understand why they make things so difficult. so many people do not plan and miss out on so much stuff because of it. It would really help if they offered more alternatives to things like this. I think the executives dont understand the draw they could have with a little more planning

I kept saying they should spread out all the villains throughout the park, but I don’t work for them, so my voice went unheeded. My sticking 6 really desirable characters within 200 feet, they created their own chaos. Rotating them was also a silly idea because people wanted certain characters. About 1/10 of 1% of the people in a park have even heard of me or this site, so you get the advantage on them 🙂

I read somewhere that Disney is having a very difficult time finding and keeping friends of Anna and Elsa. Do you there is any credence to that and maybe a reason why they are only meeting into the early evening and not having them at both Epcot and MK?

True friends are always hard to find 😉 There’s been a lot of training lately. They just weren’t prepared for this film’s success and character demand at WDW. They were only supposed to meet for a short time and short schedules.

I don’t understand why they aren’t being moved to Akershus too. Most of the other princesses meet at their counties at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. I guarantee that Akershus would blow up if the girls were there!

As a mom of two 5 year old girls, meeting Anna & Elsa is a must. We aren’t heading back to WDW until the last week of October, so hopefully all the kinks will be worked out by then. I also think it would be spectacular if WDW added Anna & Elsa to the Akershus dining experience, maybe even move Belle to Be Our Guest for an exclusive meet & greet with Beast. Having the option of seeing them in two places just makes sense while they are at the peak of popularity.

I met Anna and Elsa in Norway before the movie came out and I had a 10 minute wait. So for their new meet, will it be Anna and Elsa meeting together or will they be meeting seperately like pooh and tigger do at Animal Kingdom? Having a picture with Anna and without Elsa just seems weird.

So… The meet and greet with Anna and Elsa will be leaving the Norway Pavilion at Epcot to the Princesses Hall at Magic Kingdom!
I think the only thing Disney is trying to do is making the people return to Magic Kingdom at least 3 more times during the visit, cause one day is no longer possible to enjoy the whole park! What did they do? PUT MORE STUFF INSIDE THE PARK! Anna and Elsa were just fine at Epcot, even with the long lines, since the park doesn’t have lots of attractions for kids, the wait to meet these princesses wouldn’t be a problem! Now at Magic Kingdom its gonna be a disaster! Lines to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella are already too long, even the fastpasses won’t help (cause NOW there is a limit of 3 FP a day, which you are going to be screwed in some long line anyways)! The option to meet Anna and Elsa at Magic Kingdom and with FP won’t do any good, cause everybody is going to get FP for them, then it won’t have more times available, and then the rest of the people will need to wait anyway! Plus, when the lines are huge at Epcot, people could go all around the Norway building to stand in line, at Magic Kingdom if the line gets that long, where all those people will fit???
Its just chaos! Not happy at all with this decision, cause having Magic Kingdom and its 40 to 50 things to do, you can barely do 10 things (between rides and characters) during the whole day! And when they are bringing Anna and Elsa to MK? April!!! Almost summer time, when the park is gonna be even more packed! Disappointed!

I disagree. I can easily do every attraction in two days and that will include Anna and Elsa and Dwarfs Mine Train when it opens. I just wrote a full plan for 2 days at the Magic Kingdom. We did every major ride by 2:00 each day and had the afternoon for parade and rest. It’s not that difficult with a good plan, which I provide for free. I do agree that the lines for them will be crazy long still. I met them twice at Epcot and waited 45 minutes each time.
You really need to check out my 2 Day Magic Kingdom plan to see how easy it is to do rides and characters with my plan.

Can you link to your 2 day plan? I have been trying to find it for 30 min now and can’t seem to locate it. If we aren’t staying in a WDW resort is there any hope to see these two and not wait 4 hours? We have 5 adults in our group so if we need to switch out while in line (Can you do that?) we will but you seem to be an expert so I thought I’d ask. Going 5/11-5/17 to Orlando and figuring out what days to go to MK now (Are any days better than others?). Thanks!

I’ve been watching the tips to meet A&E for months getting ready for our May trip and now I’ll have to switch gears and watch your site for updates once they move. I really hoped they would keep them in both places so the lines would effectively get 1/2 as long. And I can’t believe they are meeting for half a day! Is it really that hard to cast these girls? As far as FP+, I checked first thing on our 60 day out and both princess meet and greets were Standby only. We booked Hollywood and Vine on this trip so we could have our 4 yr old meet Doc so I for one am all for adding the Frozen duo to Akershus…it really makes sense since that’s the country they are from! Ok…early days…love Disney….all will be well….

I have seen the girls with my daughter twice (once before the movie came out, and once a month or two ago doing the whole rope drop and run method, and still had a 2 1/2hour wait.) But hearing these 5 and 7 hour wait times is just insane. I can’t believe Disney has taken so long in addressing this issue, (I mean, someone is gonna get hurt with the running and hot tempers and all) and it just boggles my mind that they simply can’t put out some $$, hire some more girls and just fix the problem. I’m sure the insanity will die down eventually, but they need to do everything they can in the meantime to please their guests and make things safe and orderly. Telling someone at 2 that they can’t see the girls that day is just gonna really upset people. Especially children. I think Fairytale Hall is a step in the right direction, but the limited hours during the day is the big problem here. Spreading the wealth to other parks for meet and greets would help, too, but seems they don’t care to try that.

Kenny, I have to agree with all the points you have made. Disney completely underestimated the popularity of these two young ladies. Personally, I would have loved to seen them available for meet and greets at both parks. If they had the same time schedule at both parks, the weight times would be so much shorter since they could see twice as many guests in the day. But no matter what happens, I will make sure we meet Anna and Elsa on our trip in November. My daughter hasn’t been this obsessed since Rapunzel.

kenny, we are going to disney first week of june. our magic kingdom day is a thursday with morning emh. if we go straight to fairy tale princess hall with no FP+ for anna & elsa, should we be okay? and then to dwarfs mine train with no FP+? or should we reconsider the FP+?

I would venture to guess that you’ll run to A&E and use FP+ for Dwarfs Mine Train. Use another FP for Space and either ETWB, Tomorrowland Speedway or Buzz. I’ll be creating a plan for this after the mine train opens.

Agree with all your minuses. Moving them only slightly fixes a couple problems, but creates more. Upon learning this, I did make one decision yesterday to adjust my plan. For our week long trip coming up, 5/1 was supposed to be a rest day – not anymore. Fortunately going from a 6 day pass to 7 day is crazy cheap. Aaand that day happens to be EMH at MK. So guess who’s going to be running at RD? Still on the hunt for FP+ and hope to get that, but running at EMH might be the best solution anyway. Do you have any suggestions on what time to arrive to get at the front of the line on EMH day?

Magic Kingdom is really easy to get to the front of the ropes. There’s two sides. I always go to the left and then stand by the small rope that every other guest ignores while they line up behind the large rope. Fast walking down main street would have you in a good position on an EMH day without needing FP+ because you won’t be beaten by many breakfast skippers yet.

Thanks Kenny, it is 60 days out- it is for end of april and when I went back into my account, just says stand by only, so they must have closed fast passes off at this time. It doesn’t say their names yet so maybe they are going to change the names and reopen them.

As someone who waited over 3 hrs in the rain in jan to meet the sisters, I think that the idea of putting them in fairy tale hall is a greT idea in theory but agree with the issues they will arise with this move. I also agre that having the additional meet and greet in Norway in addition to fairy tale hall would be better

I don’t really have a strong opinion on what i think they *should* do, but I think they are handling this rather strangely. They could be capitalizing on this in a lot of ways and instead people are languishing in 3-4 hour waits when they could be spending money elsewhere in the park. Adding them to a character meal would be ideal, IMO. People would pay for it, no doubt. Then they could, um, magically be appearing simultaneously at the Princess Fairytale Hall but some of the heat would be taken off those waiting times by people wiling to pay for the meal.